Washington -- Is it a coincidence that with "bounty gate" and more scrutiny of gridiron injuries the National Football League is stepping up its lobbying and political giving? A Washington watchdog group, which Tuesday released a pre-Super Bowl report on the most popular sports league, sees a connection.

"With increasing scrutiny and coverage of the lasting, debilitating effects football careers can have on players' health, the NFL has gone into damage control mode - pumping up its lobbying, spending and donations to influential members of Congress," said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Executive Director Melanie Sloan.

According to CREW, the NFL spent $1.14 million on federal lobbying - a more than five-fold increase from a decade ago.

The NFL's Gridiron-PAC, which the league formed in 2008, contributed $838,000 to federal candidates and party committees in 2012, an increase of 26 percent from the 2010 election cycle. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also gave $16,600 to congressional candidates from both parties since 2009.

Even the National Football League Players Association got into the act, CREW said. It spent $120,000 on lobbying in 2012 - three times as much as 10 years ago. But it made no campaign contributions.

CREW said the top recipients of NFL PAC contributions mostly centered on key members of committees with jurisdiction over NFL issues. It said that Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mi., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, received $30,000 from the Gridiron-PAC for his 2010 and 2012 re-election campaigns.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is overseeing an increase in political donations and lobbying. Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-Picayune

In July, 2012, Upton and three other committee members wrote to the NFL and NFLPA asking that a comprehensive testing program for human growth hormones be implemented before the start of the 2012 season.